I am in a collage workshop given by Randel Plowman. This is the first day of the workshop, and these are my first collages. When I am painting with watercolor, I always have a piece of paper that I use to try out the color until I find the color I want. I save them because they tend to be so fresh and bright, as only water color can be. I am so happy to have found a way to integrate them into other pieces.  I save bits of what are referred to as ephemera; labels, pieces of paper like the rice paper below, that was a gift tag on my grandson Jacques' Christmas gift, and which was much too beautiful to throw away. Hershey bar labels, paper bags. There is an endless array of images and textures that distract and attract. Art has a way of putting things in order.

Black binder paper edge, over a block print on rice paper, over a water color swatch

 

 

Newsprint - found images

Zane Gray novel

Gel pen on black paper and cigar box label..

Torn paper, another watercolor swatch, and a Zane Gray novel..

My initials embossed on paper from a stencil I use to sign my batiks, over newsprint image 

 

I was taking a French class this summer at the Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas. JCCC has a fantastic art collection, including this collage by

Robert Rauschenberg. This collage, in front of which I stood many a day, absorbed, waiting for class to begin, is what made me want to try collage..